Sleek Ultra Matte V2 Darks

Sleek Makeup recently released two new all-matte eyeshadow palettes; V1 Brights, and V2 Darks.   As soon as I saw photos and swatches of V2 Darks, I knew I wanted it! Although the Sleek website does not ship them to the US due to FDA regulations, several Ebay sellers have them available.

The packaging for the Sleek Mattes palettes is identical to all of Sleek’s other palettes (I also own the Original Palette, which I like, but do not use very often.)  I like the packaging because the palettes are quite, well, sleek – they are thin, lightweight, and have little wasted space. I also like the plain black packaging.  The only issue is that since the top is plain black, it’s impossible to tell Sleek palettes apart from the front or side if you have several – though I’ve seen people use labelmakers to solve that problem neatly.

One change from the previous Sleek Palettes is that instead of a patterned eyeshadow surface (like in this photo), the eyeshadows in the Matte palettes are smooth. I like this change – it seems easier to pick up the color.   I used the enclosed sponge-tip applicator to do the following swatches.  I used to always use my fingers to swatch for this blog, but have recently switched to sponge tip applicators for most products; I don’t want to get the oils from my fingers in to powder products.   As always, these swatches are over bare skin.

Sleek Ultra Matte V2 Darks – top row swatches

Sleek Ultra Matte V2 Darks – bottom row swatches

As you can see, all twelve shades have good pigmentation and applied smoothly.  The one shade that is almost invisible in the first picture is the same quality as the other eyeshadows; it’s only difficult to see because it is so close to my skin color.

I also did a quick eye look to see how these performed on my eyes, using my normal brushes and over primer – and I was very pleased. They applied smoothly and blended fairly easily.  They don’t seem quite as smooth as Inglot eyeshadow, but they are still very easy to work will. For the below photo, I used the grey (bottom left) on the lid; blended out and highlighted with the white (top right), and placed a little bit of the more vibrant purple (top middle) on my lower lashline.  I did have some fallout – you can see it in the photo – but that doesn’t bother me, as it would be easy to clean up; I would have, but I didn’t notice it until I was cropping the photo.

Overall, I’m very very happy with this palette! Several – in fact, most –  of the shades are unique to my collection, which is a huge plus for me at this point, and the quality is fantastic for the price (I paid $11 plus shipping; if you’re in the UK, it goes for £6.99).

This post is from Project Swatch. All rights reserved.